ASUS Launches First Intel Thunderbolt Certified Motherboard

[Cristian_25H]

Further demonstrating its market leading innovation, ASUS has announced the launch of its P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard - the flagship of the P8Z77 Series and the first Intel certified motherboard in the market to offer the latest Thunderbolt connection interface. The PREMIUM designation has been reserved for only the best motherboards with the latest technologies, and the P8Z77-V PREMIUM maintains this standard. In addition to the onboard Thunderbolt connection on the P8Z77-V PREMIUM, ASUS also offers the same technology on the P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT to give consumers a wider range of choices.

"Intel and Asus have worked closely on the implementation of Thunderbolt technology onto Asus motherboards," said Jason Ziller, Intel's Director of Thunderbolt Marketing. "The P8Z77-V PREMIUM is the first Thunderbolt certified motherboard in the industry, a testament to its solid design and compatibility."





Thunderbolt and the latest technologies on board
The ASUS P8Z77-V PREMIUM is the first Thunderbolt motherboard to be certified by Intel, showing its strength in the industry. Thunderbolt is a new, high-speed I/O technology designed for performance, simplicity and flexibility, with lightning fast transfer speeds that are twice that of USB 3.0 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0. It offers simultaneous bi-directional, 10 Gbps transfer speeds over a single cable, with the flexibility to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices with a single connection for a clutter-free computing experience. Users can connect multiple Thunderbolt-enabled external storage drives to a Thunderbolt-enabled display and transfer files while watching HD movies, all without experiencing any lag.



Strength through cooperation
With its long history of working with high tech vendors, ASUS is able to show its strength and commitment to innovation with a close relationship to three of the leading brands currently producing products with Thunderbolt technology, Elgato, LaCie, and PROMISE.

"Elgato is delighted to work with ASUS to bring the world's first portable Thunderbolt drive to Windows," says Markus Fest, Elgato's CEO. "The powerful combination of ASUS' new PREMIUM board technology and the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD dramatically outperforms state-of-the-art portable USB 3.0 or eSATA drives."

"LaCie is pleased to work with ASUS to showcase the power of Thunderbolt technology in a Windows environment," said Erwan Girard, Business Unit Manager for Professional Solutions, LaCie. "Our solutions will deliver the unprecedented speeds and advantages of this technology to PC demanding users, especially those working in digital media applications who continually strive for more performance."

PROMISE is a leading supplier of sophisticated RAID storage solutions catering to customers from the enterprise to SMB, as well as SOHO and digital home applications. They currently offer the world's first Thunderbolt enabled RAID storage solutions and have previously worked with ASUS to develop a diversified portfolio to meet customer's requirements.

Premium features for a premium motherboard
The title of PREMIUM carries certain expectations, and as such, the P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard boasts several new features, such as true 4-way NVIDIA SLI and 4-way AMD CrossFireX on the latest PCIe Gen 3.0 slots for maximum graphics performance. Also introduced is advanced SSD Caching II, allowing users to cache additional frequently used programs and files using multiple SSDs to instantly upgrade system performance. A 32 GB mSATA based SSD is also onboard, enabling Intel Smart Response and Rapid Start Technology for super-fast boot up and resume times. Network traffic is expertly handled by a pair of Gigabit Intel LAN ports, ensuring lag free transfers and streaming entertainment.

Dedicated to providing the latest innovations, the P8Z77-V PREMIUM and P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT provides users with the best and most complete solutions available, such as DIP3 with SMART DIGI+ Power Control, Wi-Fi GO! and Fan Xpert 2.

[Maban]

The Premium is a rather attractive alternative to the WS. I'm quite surprised to see 4-way support from ASUS outside of the ROG and WS lines.

[micropage7]

cool
but the market will judge it
remember battle between usb and firewire? usb win coz many stuff come in usb than firewire so usb win by 'de facto'
now we have thunderbolt and usb 3.0
so let the market decide

[20mmrain]

I can see why Asus released this board. To compete against the Gigabyte Sniper 3. But honestly.... Unless the price is $279 like the Sniper..... I see this board and no where near a competitor. It won't be 279$ if they do release it at that price no one will be buying the P8Z77 Deluxe.
Happy with my Sniper 3..... better board for less!
Plus the extra premium they will charge for thunderbolt. I don't need it

[Maban]

Originally Posted by 20mmrain

I can see why Asus released this board. To compete against the Gigabyte Sniper 3. But honestly.... Unless the price is $279 like the Sniper..... I see this board and no where near a competitor. It won't be 279$ if they do release it at that price no one will be buying the P8Z77 Deluxe.
Happy with my Sniper 3..... better board for less!

I can see this easily going over $300 with Thunderbolt and the included SSD. Look at the price of the P8Z77 WS. It's already over $300 (which is an incredibly stupid move on their part.).

[TheLostSwede]

Try €400/$500 http://geizhals.eu/771794

[20mmrain]

Originally Posted by Maban

I can see this easily going over $300 with Thunderbolt and the included SSD. Look at the price of the P8Z77 WS. It's already over $300 (which is an incredibly stupid move on their part.).

Exactly.... I know I own the Gigabyte Board .... and It's a great board so there might be a little Bias on my part. But if Asus Prices it above $300 your right.....it will be a hard buy considering there are equal boards for less. Plus if this one is over $300 what price will the Formula be? Asus is great... but not great enough to spend an extra $50 for the same technology

[dickwyn]

the premium is just really too expensive. it is expected to be around $450 which is pretty expensive. i think most gamers will got with ROG because not much have to do with thunderbolt for now

[jalex3]

Needs more usb ports and less vga.

[name = user]

can this mobo can use on imac 27'' as monitor?

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by name = user

can this mobo can use on imac 27'' as monitor?

I would assume so. I HAVE seen Thunderbolt-enabled PCs with with apple thunderbolt displays:


http://www.anandtech.com/show/5829/a...-msis-z77agd80

[Octavean]

We knew far in advance that Intel Thunderbolt would only be included on the higher-end / premium price boards well in advance of even general Z77 motherboard availability. I think this is applicable to all manufactures with the exception of ASUS since they have Thunderbolt ready boards via their Thunderbolt "TB_Header" implementation on product motherboards stating in the ~$150 retail range (via the ASUS P8Z77-V LK and up).

So price isn't necessarily as much of an issue when it comes to Thunderbolt on ASUS motherboards. The ~$40 optional ASUS addin Thunderbolt card is likely awaiting certification like the Asus P8Z77-V Premium motherboard just passed.

With other manufacturers, either you pay the premium for their Thunderbolt motherboard or don't get thunderbolt support. With ASUS Thunderbolt is an optional addin on many of their cheaper boards. I call that a design win.

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by 20mmrain

Plus the extra premium they will charge for thunderbolt. I don't need it yet

Fixed that for you

[Octavean]

Originally Posted by 20mmrain

I can see why Asus released this board. To compete against the Gigabyte Sniper 3. But honestly.... Unless the price is $279 like the Sniper..... I see this board and no where near a competitor. It won't be 279$ if they do release it at that price no one will be buying the P8Z77 Deluxe.
Happy with my Sniper 3..... better board for less!
Plus the extra premium they will charge for thunderbolt. I don't need it

I'm not sure I understand. Does your Gigabyte board have Intel Thunderbolt support? If not what is the objective of the comparison to ASUS motherboards that do have Thunderbolt support?

[Jurassic1024]

ASUS P8Z77-V Premium Thunderbolt Demo - PC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khJc-...&feature=g-u-u

[Octavean]

Yeah,.....

Newegg now has the Asus P8Z77-V Premium motherboard for $449.99. In contrast the MSI Z77A-GD80 cost $269.99. Big difference. and IMO the MSI is more in line with Z77 boards whereas the Asus Premium is beyond the X79 prices.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by micropage7

cool
but the market will judge it
remember battle between usb and firewire? usb win coz many stuff come in usb than firewire so usb win by 'de facto'
now we have thunderbolt and usb 3.0
so let the market decide

Thunderbolt is not an ALTERNATIVE. It is effectively a tunnel.

There is no USB Vs. Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt CARRIES USB.


It is a tunnel interface for displayport+pci-E. You can put whatever else interface you want through it; SATA, USB, Firewire, etc, because you have an open ended pci-e connection on the other side of the thunderbolt interface.